Chemainus Secondary is located on central Vancouver Island,in Chemainus, British Columbia. The school is considered rural, and it is 30+ minutes away from any larger centers. The school not only draws from the town of Chemainus, but also students come from the islands of Thetis and Penelakut, the Regional District of Saltair and the town of Crofton. The majority of students are bussed to school.
The area is a typical small town, where most people know each other or at least recognize each other. Many students are third generation, and many teachers are teaching their second generation. Most teachers at the school have Master's Degrees and have taught for more than 20 years. We have two newer teachers, and three who are close to retirement. While for a few years, administration changed yearly, we have had administrative consistency for three years now.
Chemainus Secondary School has 385 students in grades 8-12 with a roughly even distribution between grades. Grade 8 = 1 Grade 9 = 2 Grade 10 = 3 Grade 11 = 4 Grade 12 = 5
According to the Ministry of Education, 53% of the school population is male, 20% have aboriginal anscestory, .3% are E.S.L., 10% have an LD of one kind or another, and 2.4% are gifted. We have a small International Program which draws between 1-5% of the population depending on the economy and the year. Many LD students cross the district boundary to come to our school, because it is much smaller than the closest highschool in Nanaimo District. The Learning Assistance group of staff have developed a reputation as a caring, thoughtful and supportive place for special needs students. The one in five aboriginal students are supported by a full time counsellor and a half time language/culture support elder. There are totem poles and artwork throughout the school.
The Early Development Indicators, research by U.B.C., for Chemainus and area show 32.5% of students the area have “vulnerability on one or more of the scales”(EDI data, UBC). These factors are seen in our classrooms with kids with no lunches (hence a free breakfast/lunch program), kids with no school supplies (hence administrative support for supplies), and students with little family support. We cannot control many things for these students, but as a group of teachers we are dedicated to doing our best for these students.
The school's projected enrolment by 2016 is 287, which will put a great deal of pressure on staffing and elective offerings. In the mid 1990's the population was 550, so we have already had huge shifts in the staffing and course offerings at the school. There is talk of moving grades 6 and 7 to the high school to create a school within a school model, but this has not been broached with the community or parents yet. In the past, during the 1970's, grades 11 and 12 were bussed south 27 km to complete high school, but this caused a great deal of outrage. While the students and parents do not seem to recognize that a large shift will have to take place, the staff are already starting to discuss the potential impact of losing an additional 100 students.
We have a great group of students at our school. They are friendly and cooperative. The provincial assessments, participation rates, and transition statistics show that our school is above the provincial average. We were ranked #1 highschool in our district, and 86th in the province. Amazingly, Chemainus Secondary was also rated one of the best schools in the province for low income children's success. I find it ironic that all this success is downplayed, and the school tends to be promoted in the media more for it's extracurricular activities than it's academic success.
The school is located inNorth Cowichan, but also draws the Cowichan Valley Regional District. It is impossible to separate exact numbers, so a general picture and statistics will be drawn from the North Cowichan census data as it is representative of the region in general.
Of the approximately 30,000 residents of North Cowichan, 16.5% are under the ages of 14, 12.9 % are in the 15-24 range, which are both equivalent to the entire province. Interestingly at 21.7% the 25-44 working agegroup are 6% lower than the provincial average, and both the 45-64 and 65+ range are higher than the provincial averages at 31 and 17.9%. I found this interesting because the 25-44 age range are likely to be those who would have children in the school system, and the lower numbers reflect our general declining enrolment projections. This population trend is also evident in the Chemainus Residents' Association demographics, as they are anti-development, and have a huge campaign to save Echo Heights from a family-type subdivision development. This aging population may result in the demise of the local secondary school as already 27% of households have no children.
In our region, the unemployment rate is 5.7%, which is lower than the provincial average of 8.5%. The median income in this area was $62 125 per year. In my opinion, this is very low, but it is comparable to the provincial median of $65, 787. Although in this area 9% families are below the poverty line, compared to 13.9% in the province, we still find that many students need a hand with food. We have a hot breakfast and lunch program, and food is donated by the two local bakeries. Additionally, we have a school vegetable and fruit garden which produces food for this program as well. Interestingly, 84% of families have two parents in the home, which is higher than I would have expected. This community experiences the ups and downs of the forest industry which sometimes has a significant affect on the area, as logging and forest products are the largest employers in the area, followed by retail and healthcare. We find that student stress is greatest when the local pulpmill, in Crofton, has a shut down.
The area has a vareity of media sources:
Local Newspapers include the Chemainus Courier, Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle, Cowichan Pictorial(Cowichan Valley News) and Times Colonist (Vancouver Island News). We have one local radio station Sun FM. We have no local TV chanel, but Shaw broadcasts from Nanaimo 35 km north. There is a Vancouver Island Chanel broadcasting from Victoria which covers some up-island news. One small bookstore is located 10 km north in Ladysmith. One video store is located in the Chemainus town center and two are located in Ladysmith. There is also one small one in the Crofton zone and one in the Saltair zone. Shaw is used primarily for cable, but some families have satelite TV. Shaw and Telus highspeed connections are available for most locations, except Penelakut island which is a First Nations Reservation. Satelite connections are available at the band office and school, but not in homes.
Other libraries in the area: Publc School - 3 Catholic School --1 Penelakut School - 1 but it has no collection management system and students are not allowed to take books home. Community - 1 very small satelite branch
Until recently, I was unaware that a group of students from Penelakut Island were not able to check out books from their school library. I realized I must work with these students as a small group to explain how to find a book in the library and how to check out books to take home. The small size of our local public library has also motivated me to work with the librarian to get all our students library cards and I have been showing students as class groups how to log into the VIRL library website, order and download books for free. We also realized that we can teach students to use various databases via the VIRL site, as our district cannot afford to purchase the database licences.
There are a number of Public and private schools in Chemainus Secondary catchment area.
#
Public
Private
Preschools
1
1
Elementary k-7
4
1
High schools 8-12
1
Two of the elementary schools are located on small islands, off the coast of Vancouver Island. Students commute by ferry for grades 8-12. Post Secondary: Students must travel 27 km south to Duncan to a satellite Vancouver Island University, 35 km north to Nanaimo to Vancouver Island University, or 100 km south to Victoria to the University of Victoria. Nanaimo has some private institutions such as Sprott Shaw.
About how many home-schooled students are there in your community?
I was unable to find an "official" number for home-schoolers, but according to my principal we have six high-school students registered with us. These students take from one to four courses through Open School. He believes there are five or six home-schoolers at the elementary level, which is a reflection of the part time multi-aged grouping class, which runs at our main feeder school. Twenty one students attend this program partial days, parents usually stay and help, and it is more like a home-school-flexible option as much of the learning continues at home, but is organized and evaluated by a qualified teacher.
Education Levels
According to census data, only a small percentage, 14%, of our population have no high school diploma, although this surprises me as in the past few years I have taught many students who will be the first in the family to graduate. Perhaps their parents went back to school later in life, as 30% of the population is a high school graduate (includes equivalency). Of the population, 37% have some college, no degree, and 9.5% have a bachelor's degree or higher. There are 10% missing from these statistics for some reason, but my daily knowledge of the area would suggest that these are lower than grade 7 and are mostly seniors.
Community Services:
There is one local hospital - with a limited time ER and Long Term Care -- in Chemainus. There is one doctor's office with three doctors. The new doctor was given loan forgiveness as this town qualified as a rural placement! In addition to the long-term care, there is one intermediate care apartment building for seniors, a very active seniors center, and through much protest, a satellite youth center. There are four churches; all but one is very busy. There is a hospital auxiliary, a legion, and a Rotary club, which are all supportive of our school.
There are no government offices in the community any longer. We no longer even have an RCMP station.
Community Partners:
Greer suggests to: "Ask yourself again what type of library the community needs, what functions need to be emphasized, which levels of service are appropriate?" I considered this comment while looking for data about our catchment area.
Due to the rural nature of the area, and the lack of government offices, it is most important that students learn how to access services via the Internet. While they may not be able to walk in and speak to a person, they should know how to find required information online, or at least find contact information. Additionally, it is important for us to recognize that not all students have access to the Internet or computers at home. Some students do not have reading materials or are not used to taking reading materials home, and not all students have role models that support education. Once we recognize these factors, we can look for ways to be more supportive of all students.
Since our local library is small, it is essential that students understand how to use the Vancouver Island Regional Library online system. We also need to partner with their professional librarians and work with them to support curriculum. We have done this in the past with author visits and research papers.
Mid Island Science, Technology and Innovation, includes local fish farms, aquaculture, mining etc. , and is an untapped resource which links to the curriculum area on which I will focus. I would like to tap into these types of organizations and businesses since it shows our students that science careers are all around us. Sometimes when we think of the pulp mill, we think of laboring jobs, but most of the highly paid positions are professional engineers and scientists. Aquaculture is another rapidly expanding science based area, as well as forest management.
My first step will be to look carefully at the curriculum and the businesses located in this directory (I did not know this existed prior this research!). I will make a correlation between areas of content and areas that the businesses work in. Through this correlation it will be interesting to see if there are field trips or guest speakers available to deepen the learning in these areas.
The local Rotary club have been very helpful in the past for various school projects, so I will be able to contact them regarding help with special funding. They also have a focus on literacy this year, so perhaps we can dovetail with their focus. I can also apply again for Raise a Reader funds, as the use of these funds for science reading was well received.
Already in place are connections between Centre of the Universe and the IMAX for the Space Unit. It would be interesting to create a database of websites and video clips to further support this unit, as the field trips are already in place.
While it might seem obvious, a close look at the District Resource Center collection is in order. I have noticed that many teachers do not have the time or energy to make those connections with the staff at the center. And as I think about it, I bet that other science teachers and librarians in the school district might have ideas for resources and support/field trip sites.
Approximately 85 students are registered in Science 10 each year, and the course load is divided between two teachers. One of the teachers has a Master's Degree, and the other one currently focuses her energy on professional development to expand her repertoire of teaching strategies. During the past year, we have pulled chunks of the science resources and taken them to the classrooms to support particular units. Some of the teachers have used the resources and have found that students enjoy being able to page through related science materials.
Current Library Program:
The library is open all day, but it is only staffed for 1.5 blocks a day, during blocks one and two. Adjacent to the library is a class set of computers, and the library has four additional stations, all connected to the Internet. The librarian support time is flexible, in that students are not assigned during that library time. Both individuals and class groupings use the library all day. Students check out books using a clipboard when the librarian is teaching in her classroom. Since the librarian time is so limited, little inroads have been made to bring classes to the library for projects. Over the past year and a half this has happened six or seven times. Usually, working in the library are 20+ students who are distance learners doing online courses independently. The lack of time that coordinates with interested teachers is becoming more and more frustrating, as I know what can be accomplished, yet we are so restricted by time allotments. I wonder if a project such as this, where I am developing resource support for teachers, will be a good investment of my time, since I cannot coordinate co-teaching with many of the staff, but I can find resources without their direct involvment at all times.
Most students use the library for FIC book choices for personal and silent reading. In comparison to reshelving novels, I reshelve very few NONFIC books that have been pulled by students. Typically, the NONFIC reshelving are books that I have pulled for classroom projects or themes. The number one NONFIC books are Guiness Book of World Records and Ripley's Believe it or Not. I was told today that our feeder elementary schools are focussing on Adrienne Grear's Reading Power, so it will be interesting to see if as these kids move into highschool if they read more NONFIC.
Conclusion:
Lamb suggests that we look at "the needs of ... students and teachers?" as we plan for program improvement. Through the process of gathering data for my community profile, I realized that we need to look at ways to support students not only in transitioning from elementary schools, but also help them to see potential career options. Since the majority of adults in the community do not have post secondary education, our students may not understand the process of entering post secondary. More than likely, they will be the first generation to attend post-secondary studies.
The lack of parent education emphasizes the important role the school should play in teaching our students research skills, Internet skills, and 21Century skills. It is in this area that Lamb's comment "How do these needs impact the library media center program?" should be taken seriously. It is imperative to have a strong program that not only supports students in their current learning and curriculum, but also provides them with skills for their future. I also believe that it is through projects such as this that librarians can connect with teachers, justify their time allocations, and demonstrate a real need for more time to support staff as they support students.
Community Analysis and Report
Chemainus Secondary is located on central Vancouver Island,in Chemainus, British Columbia. The school is considered rural, and it is 30+ minutes away from any larger centers. The school not only draws from the town of Chemainus, but also students come from the islands of Thetis and Penelakut, the Regional District of Saltair and the town of Crofton. The majority of students are bussed to school.The area is a typical small town, where most people know each other or at least recognize each other. Many students are third generation, and many teachers are teaching their second generation. Most teachers at the school have Master's Degrees and have taught for more than 20 years. We have two newer teachers, and three who are close to retirement. While for a few years, administration changed yearly, we have had administrative consistency for three years now.
Chemainus Secondary Catchment Area Analysis.
(Form adapted from http://www.uhls.org/uhls/communityanalysis/)Chemainus Secondary School has 385 students in grades 8-12 with a roughly even distribution between grades.
Grade 8 = 1
Grade 9 = 2
Grade 10 = 3
Grade 11 = 4
Grade 12 = 5
According to the Ministry of Education, 53% of the school population is male, 20% have aboriginal anscestory, .3% are E.S.L., 10% have an LD of one kind or another, and 2.4% are gifted. We have a small International Program which draws between 1-5% of the population depending on the economy and the year. Many LD students cross the district boundary to come to our school, because it is much smaller than the closest highschool in Nanaimo District. The Learning Assistance group of staff have developed a reputation as a caring, thoughtful and supportive place for special needs students. The one in five aboriginal students are supported by a full time counsellor and a half time language/culture support elder. There are totem poles and artwork throughout the school.
The Early Development Indicators, research by U.B.C., for Chemainus and area show 32.5% of students the area have “vulnerability on one or more of the scales”(EDI data, UBC). These factors are seen in our classrooms with kids with no lunches (hence a free breakfast/lunch program), kids with no school supplies (hence administrative support for supplies), and students with little family support. We cannot control many things for these students, but as a group of teachers we are dedicated to doing our best for these students.
The school's projected enrolment by 2016 is 287, which will put a great deal of pressure on staffing and elective offerings. In the mid 1990's the population was 550, so we have already had huge shifts in the staffing and course offerings at the school. There is talk of moving grades 6 and 7 to the high school to create a school within a school model, but this has not been broached with the community or parents yet. In the past, during the 1970's, grades 11 and 12 were bussed south 27 km to complete high school, but this caused a great deal of outrage. While the students and parents do not seem to recognize that a large shift will have to take place, the staff are already starting to discuss the potential impact of losing an additional 100 students.
We have a great group of students at our school. They are friendly and cooperative. The provincial assessments, participation rates, and transition statistics show that our school is above the provincial average. We were ranked #1 highschool in our district, and 86th in the province. Amazingly, Chemainus Secondary was also rated one of the best schools in the province for low income children's success. I find it ironic that all this success is downplayed, and the school tends to be promoted in the media more for it's extracurricular activities than it's academic success.
Source of most recent information and data: Ministry of Education BC, School District 79 Long Term Facilities Plan (p. 18) the Fraser Institute.
Surrounding Community:
The school is located in North Cowichan, but also draws the Cowichan Valley Regional District. It is impossible to separate exact numbers, so a general picture and statistics will be drawn from the North Cowichan census data as it is representative of the region in general.
Of the approximately 30,000 residents of North Cowichan, 16.5% are under the ages of 14, 12.9 % are in the 15-24 range, which are both equivalent to the entire province. Interestingly at 21.7% the 25-44 working agegroup are 6% lower than the provincial average, and both the 45-64 and 65+ range are higher than the provincial averages at 31 and 17.9%. I found this interesting because the 25-44 age range are likely to be those who would have children in the school system, and the lower numbers reflect our general declining enrolment projections. This population trend is also evident in the Chemainus Residents' Association demographics, as they are anti-development, and have a huge campaign to save Echo Heights from a family-type subdivision development. This aging population may result in the demise of the local secondary school as already 27% of households have no children.
In our region, the unemployment rate is 5.7%, which is lower than the provincial average of 8.5%. The median income in this area was $62 125 per year. In my opinion, this is very low, but it is comparable to the provincial median of $65, 787. Although in this area 9% families are below the poverty line, compared to 13.9% in the province, we still find that many students need a hand with food. We have a hot breakfast and lunch program, and food is donated by the two local bakeries. Additionally, we have a school vegetable and fruit garden which produces food for this program as well. Interestingly, 84% of families have two parents in the home, which is higher than I would have expected.
This community experiences the ups and downs of the forest industry which sometimes has a significant affect on the area, as logging and forest products are the largest employers in the area, followed by retail and healthcare. We find that student stress is greatest when the local pulpmill, in Crofton, has a shut down.
The area has a vareity of media sources:
Local Newspapers include the Chemainus Courier, Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle, Cowichan Pictorial(Cowichan Valley News) and Times Colonist (Vancouver Island News). We have one local radio station Sun FM. We have no local TV chanel, but Shaw broadcasts from Nanaimo 35 km north. There is a Vancouver Island Chanel broadcasting from Victoria which covers some up-island news. One small bookstore is located 10 km north in Ladysmith. One video store is located in the Chemainus town center and two are located in Ladysmith. There is also one small one in the Crofton zone and one in the Saltair zone. Shaw is used primarily for cable, but some families have satelite TV. Shaw and Telus highspeed connections are available for most locations, except Penelakut island which is a First Nations Reservation. Satelite connections are available at the band office and school, but not in homes.Other libraries in the area:
Publc School - 3
Catholic School --1
Penelakut School - 1 but it has no collection management system and students are not allowed to take books home.
Community - 1 very small satelite branch
Until recently, I was unaware that a group of students from Penelakut Island were not able to check out books from their school library. I realized I must work with these students as a small group to explain how to find a book in the library and how to check out books to take home. The small size of our local public library has also motivated me to work with the librarian to get all our students library cards and I have been showing students as class groups how to log into the VIRL library website, order and download books for free. We also realized that we can teach students to use various databases via the VIRL site, as our district cannot afford to purchase the database licences.
There are a number of Public and private schools in Chemainus Secondary catchment area.
About how many home-schooled students are there in your community?
I was unable to find an "official" number for home-schoolers, but according to my principal we have six high-school students registered with us. These students take from one to four courses through Open School. He believes there are five or six home-schoolers at the elementary level, which is a reflection of the part time multi-aged grouping class, which runs at our main feeder school. Twenty one students attend this program partial days, parents usually stay and help, and it is more like a home-school-flexible option as much of the learning continues at home, but is organized and evaluated by a qualified teacher.
Education Levels
According to census data, only a small percentage, 14%, of our population have no high school diploma, although this surprises me as in the past few years I have taught many students who will be the first in the family to graduate. Perhaps their parents went back to school later in life, as 30% of the population is a high school graduate (includes equivalency). Of the population, 37% have some college, no degree, and 9.5% have a bachelor's degree or higher. There are 10% missing from these statistics for some reason, but my daily knowledge of the area would suggest that these are lower than grade 7 and are mostly seniors.
Community Services:
There is one local hospital - with a limited time ER and Long Term Care -- in Chemainus. There is one doctor's office with three doctors. The new doctor was given loan forgiveness as this town qualified as a rural placement! In addition to the long-term care, there is one intermediate care apartment building for seniors, a very active seniors center, and through much protest, a satellite youth center. There are four churches; all but one is very busy. There is a hospital auxiliary, a legion, and a Rotary club, which are all supportive of our school.There are no government offices in the community any longer. We no longer even have an RCMP station.
Community Partners:
Greer suggests to: "Ask yourself again what type of library the community needs, what functions need to be emphasized, which levels of service are appropriate?" I considered this comment while looking for data about our catchment area.Due to the rural nature of the area, and the lack of government offices, it is most important that students learn how to access services via the Internet. While they may not be able to walk in and speak to a person, they should know how to find required information online, or at least find contact information. Additionally, it is important for us to recognize that not all students have access to the Internet or computers at home. Some students do not have reading materials or are not used to taking reading materials home, and not all students have role models that support education. Once we recognize these factors, we can look for ways to be more supportive of all students.
Since our local library is small, it is essential that students understand how to use the Vancouver Island Regional Library online system. We also need to partner with their professional librarians and work with them to support curriculum. We have done this in the past with author visits and research papers.
Mid Island Science, Technology and Innovation, includes local fish farms, aquaculture, mining etc. , and is an untapped resource which links to the curriculum area on which I will focus. I would like to tap into these types of organizations and businesses since it shows our students that science careers are all around us. Sometimes when we think of the pulp mill, we think of laboring jobs, but most of the highly paid positions are professional engineers and scientists. Aquaculture is another rapidly expanding science based area, as well as forest management.
My first step will be to look carefully at the curriculum and the businesses located in this directory (I did not know this existed prior this research!). I will make a correlation between areas of content and areas that the businesses work in. Through this correlation it will be interesting to see if there are field trips or guest speakers available to deepen the learning in these areas.
The local Rotary club have been very helpful in the past for various school projects, so I will be able to contact them regarding help with special funding. They also have a focus on literacy this year, so perhaps we can dovetail with their focus. I can also apply again for Raise a Reader funds, as the use of these funds for science reading was well received.
Already in place are connections between Centre of the Universe and the IMAX for the Space Unit. It would be interesting to create a database of websites and video clips to further support this unit, as the field trips are already in place.
While it might seem obvious, a close look at the District Resource Center collection is in order. I have noticed that many teachers do not have the time or energy to make those connections with the staff at the center. And as I think about it, I bet that other science teachers and librarians in the school district might have ideas for resources and support/field trip sites.
FOCUS: Science 10 .
Approximately 85 students are registered in Science 10 each year, and the course load is divided between two teachers. One of the teachers has a Master's Degree, and the other one currently focuses her energy on professional development to expand her repertoire of teaching strategies. During the past year, we have pulled chunks of the science resources and taken them to the classrooms to support particular units. Some of the teachers have used the resources and have found that students enjoy being able to page through related science materials.
Current Library Program:
The library is open all day, but it is only staffed for 1.5 blocks a day, during blocks one and two. Adjacent to the library is a class set of computers, and the library has four additional stations, all connected to the Internet. The librarian support time is flexible, in that students are not assigned during that library time. Both individuals and class groupings use the library all day. Students check out books using a clipboard when the librarian is teaching in her classroom. Since the librarian time is so limited, little inroads have been made to bring classes to the library for projects. Over the past year and a half this has happened six or seven times. Usually, working in the library are 20+ students who are distance learners doing online courses independently. The lack of time that coordinates with interested teachers is becoming more and more frustrating, as I know what can be accomplished, yet we are so restricted by time allotments. I wonder if a project such as this, where I am developing resource support for teachers, will be a good investment of my time, since I cannot coordinate co-teaching with many of the staff, but I can find resources without their direct involvment at all times.
Most students use the library for FIC book choices for personal and silent reading. In comparison to reshelving novels, I reshelve very few NONFIC books that have been pulled by students. Typically, the NONFIC reshelving are books that I have pulled for classroom projects or themes. The number one NONFIC books are Guiness Book of World Records and Ripley's Believe it or Not. I was told today that our feeder elementary schools are focussing on Adrienne Grear's Reading Power, so it will be interesting to see if as these kids move into highschool if they read more NONFIC.
Conclusion:
Lamb suggests that we look at "the needs of ... students and teachers?" as we plan for program improvement. Through the process of gathering data for my community profile, I realized that we need to look at ways to support students not only in transitioning from elementary schools, but also help them to see potential career options. Since the majority of adults in the community do not have post secondary education, our students may not understand the process of entering post secondary. More than likely, they will be the first generation to attend post-secondary studies.The lack of parent education emphasizes the important role the school should play in teaching our students research skills, Internet skills, and 21Century skills. It is in this area that Lamb's comment "How do these needs impact the library media center program?" should be taken seriously. It is imperative to have a strong program that not only supports students in their current learning and curriculum, but also provides them with skills for their future. I also believe that it is through projects such as this that librarians can connect with teachers, justify their time allocations, and demonstrate a real need for more time to support staff as they support students.